MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Well, that took freaking forever ... but the Blue Jays finally started to stink the joint up. I swear to you, you can't stay long atop the MLB Power Rankings -- our failure by osmosis jinxing ability is just too strong, son. At any rate, it was a weird week for ranking baseball: the Cubs continued to skid, the Padres went on a tear and Toronto fell off the face of the planet. So, yeah, spiciness ensued, and you may take the jump to see how badly your team fared. Unless you're a Rangers or a Braves fan, in which case they couldn't have done that poorly.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
With the recent news that Mark DeRosa is on the trade block and the White Sox have possibly landed Jake Peavy, junkies of major league baseball trade rumors got an early glimpse at what promises to be a very interesting July. It's far to0 early to know exactly who will be in the market for what -- or who can afford to take on temporary payroll in this economy -- but it's certainly fun to speculate. Let's do it.
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
While it's entirely possible the Blue Jays do hit a snag, isn't it about time columnists across the internet stopped doing Can the Blue Jays Really Keep This Up? pieces by now? I've seen at least 10 in the past three weeks. There are almost as many The Rangers Are For Real posts. The discrepancy in the media's faith in those two is likely due to the divisions in which the teams reside, but seven weeks isn't a small sample. At some point, you have to start giving credit where it's due.
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Let me put this simply: you want no part of being No. 1 in the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings. It just brings discord, losing and possibly suspensions to your baseball team. Such was the case with the white-hot Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who now have to deal with a 50 game-ban of their star slugger. Who's doomed this week? Let's just say that no one would be too shocked if they weren't there again next Wednesday.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead. You Oughta Know... That Ryan Zimmerman just keeps getting hits. It's easy to forget about Zimmerman because the Nationals have been playing so poorly this year, but Zimmerman extended his streak to 27 games on Saturday.
Zimmerman was hitless until his eighth-inning solo homer, which turned out to be the deciding run in the Nats' 2-1 victory over the Diamondbacks, their third win in a row.
Zimmerman's streak is getting to the point that it's worth paying close attention. This doesn't hapen every day. The last player to have a hitting streak of at least 27 games was Moises Alou, who hit in 30 consecutive games for the Mets in 2007. The franchise record is 31 games, set by Vladimir Guerrero in 1999.
Zimmerman will face Arizona's Max Scherzer today. Zimmerman has never faced Scherzer. Starting on Monday, the Nats will be in San Francisco for a three-game series in which they'll face Randy Johnson, Matt Cain and Barry Zito.
The tragic death of 22-year-old starter Nick Adenhart is definitely going to be the low point of the Los Angeles Angels' season -- at least let's hope they don't have to deal with another death -- but much less significant problems are continuing to plague the defending AL West Champions. Specifically, they can't escape the injury bug.
As if the Angels didn't have enough problems this year with their tragedy- and injury-stricken pitching staff, now they've lost their best hitter. Vladimir Guerrero is going to be out indefinitely with a tear in the right pectoral.
"Obviously, short of needing surgery, this is a big blow," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Vlad will be reevaluated in a month, and we'll see where we are with it.
"We don't have a timetable right now. We'll see how it progresses. There are some optimistic windows we're getting, and some that might take longer."
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
The days where boos rained down upon Kosuke Fukudome seem like a distant memory.
Through nine games on the new season, the formerly-embattled center fielder is batting .375 with three homers, eight RBI, six runs and a steal for good measure. Compare that to his rookie campaign, where he only managed 10 big knocks in 501 at-bats. Should we believe in this new and improved Fukudome, or is it only a matter of time before fans are ripping him to shreds again?
On Sunday the Angels broke some news to Gary Matthews Jr. that most outside observers could see coming. Matthews Jr. was told he's going to be the team's fifth outfielder/DH on the depth chart behind Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero, Bobby Abreu, and Juan Rivera. Matthews looked better this spring, coming off of knee surgery, and was hitting .258 with two homers and nine runs driven in, and more importantly, he looked to be at full speed while running the bases.
So he was hoping that his recovery and decent performance would be enough to get him some playing time this season, but it won't be. After he was told the news, Matthews wasn't exactly happy about it and asked the team if he could leave for 24 hours to cool off.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the... Team about to win about 15 less games this season. Teams in their division have closed the gap on the Angels, who are aging in some spots and not yet developed at others. The biggest factor to consider in fantasy is how many less games their starting pitchers will likely win.
The tragic death of 22-year-old starter 
As if the Angels didn't have enough problems this year with their tragedy- and injury-stricken pitching staff, now they've lost their best hitter. 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
On Sunday the Angels broke some news to 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
